Always, A Hero Comes Home
by Seryan Parks
Summary: Part of the Plush Toy collaboration. My stuffed rabbit turns into a Vala, and there's others lurking in my community. Eru help us.
1. Chapter 1: In Retrospect

In Retrospect

In retrospect, it all began two years ago when my favorite aunt gave me a stuffed rabbit for Easter, and I made the fateful decision of naming him Tulkas. I entertained the idea of calling him Wilbur, but everyone's stuffed rabbit was named Wilbur. And my name was Nessa, so I thought it would be cute if he were Tulkas.

And in retrospect, I wouldn't change a thing.


	2. Tulkas Bunny

**Always, A Hero Comes Home Chapter 2: Tulkas-bunny. I own not, you sue not. Enjoy.**

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"Nessa! The bus comes in twenty minutes! Get _up!_" my father roared for the fourth time that Friday morning. "I'm not driving you, so if you don't make the bus, you're outta luck."

"Ugh," I groaned, but dragged myself out of bed, dressed, and went to claim my morning pop-tart. I left my favorite stuffed animal, Tulkas, on the pillow after a "Good morning, Tulk" and a quick belly rub.

Yes, I'm 16 and I still sleep with stuffed animals. Deal with it.

I barely had enough time to eat my pop-tart and dash through the door to meet the bus.

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15 hours later, I stumbled home. It was a long day—test in Algebra 2, an essay in geography, and the varsity boys' basketball game went _way_ into overtime. Being in the school band and one of two trumpet players that were actually good, I was obligated to go to all the basketball games. That, and it counted towards my participation grade in band class. And to top it all off, it was ridiculously foggy outside. As Yukon Cornelious would say, "Thick as peanut butter." Driving home, I could barely see ten feet in front of me. _Welcome to Indiana,_ I thought,_where the forecasts are made up and the seasons don't matter._

Come to think of it, it had been strange weather ever since New Year's. Foggy, clear, warm, freezing- pretty typical in Indiana, but Mother Nature usually didn't get this indecisive until March. So maybe it wasn't so odd that what happened, happened.

But that's Indiana.


	3. Impossible

**New chapter! *does a happy dance* Warning, mild language in this chappie. Anyway, I own not, you sue not, you guys know the drill. Thanks to you guys/gals who reviewed (and those who didn't but added me to your favorites). I draw strength from your support!**

Like I said, I shouldn't have been surprised. But I was.

I was shocked out of my mind when I stumbled into my room, half asleep, and saw a strange man sitting on my bed and reading my comic books.

"Oh. My…" I couldn't think of an appropriate deity to reference here, so I let the words just hang in the air. "Who the hell are you?"

He was, well, a guy, sitting on my bed, with a light purple ribbon tied around his neck and sandy brown hair, and not much else. He looked up and said, "Oh, you're home."

"Excuse me?" I asked indignantly. "I'm home? Who the hell are you? What the hell are you doing here? "

"Haven't you guessed?" the man asked. He pointed to the purple ribbon. "Is this familiar?"

"Yes." I growled. "That's Tulkas's ribbon." Wait….What?

"Oh, then who might I be?"

What? No. Absolutely impossible. This didn't even happen in those weird fanfics that I definitely did not read, nope. This was absolutely impossible.

It was well past 11, and I had school the next day. I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

When I opened them, the man was gone and my Tulkas-bunny was sitting on my bed,

I blinked.

I shouldn't have, for when I opened my eyes, the man was back. Smirking.

"Are we convinced?"

"Fine," I grumbled, "but I liked you better as a stuffed animal."

Tulkas seemed much happier now that I was convinced that my stuffed bunny was indeed a Vala out of Tolkienian legend. A moment later my familiar bunny was back on my bed. I picked him up and put him on the beanbag in the corner.

I slept with Mollie the horse that night instead.


	4. Oromë

**Thanks for reviews, guys! You lend me strength. And yes, we really are raising baby kittens.**

"Miaw."

"No, Khlaeesi."

"Miaawwr."

"Go back to sleep, you silly kitty."

The _miaws_ became more insistent, so I finally opened my eyes and looked into those of my calico kitten, Khaleesi. Their mommy, Trixie, had been hit on the road some days before, leaving us to raise her four babies. Including feeding them, which was not fun. But Khaleesi was hungry- a "hungy kitty", as my grandpa would say.

Bottle feeding baby kittens, if you have not tried it, is not an activity that I would recommend. The kittens claw at your hand while groping for the nipple, they mistake your fingers for the nipple, they spill their milk everywhere. Hunter had chewed (and swallowed) three nipples off the bottles already.

But it's part of being a kitten mommy, I suppose. I mixed up a batch of the nasty-smelling milk formula (kittens can't drink normal milk) and warmed it up in the microwave before sloshing it into a bottle and giving it to Khaleesi. She took it eagerly and began to suckle, her ears twitching. Kittens' ears always twitched when they fed. Some reflex, I supposed.

I wondered where Romy was. He was the kittens' daddy, and had disappeared the same day Trixie died. It had been two weeks, and we were now well into summer vacation. I worried about him a lot. My poor baby boy, my sun-and-stars.

As if my thoughts had summoned him, I heard a familiar _mrowr_ coming from outside. I almost dropped Khaleesi.

"Baby boy?" I hardly dared to hope. He had been missing for so long…

I raced outside, expecting to see my baby hurt or worse, but that was not what I found.

I had accepted that Tulkas was a Vala who just happened to also be my bunny rabbit, but to see him chasing my cat around the front yard was a little much.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I roared. Tulkas halted, but Romy ran towards me, like a yellow blur.

"Mommy!" he said happily.

Wait. He _said_? Oh no, I had to stop naming my furry friends after the Valar.

For Romy, was of course, short for Oromë


	5. The More the Merrier

**Speedy update! I'm so proud. Special thanks to Crackers, Elf from Downunder, 5SecstoThrowItFB (Namo is coming, I promise), Quantumphysica, Fortune Zyne, the Wayfaring Strangers, and ElenielCaladwen. I love you all.**

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"Mommy," Oromë said again, purring and rubbing against my legs. "I missed you, Mommy. Can I have some milk?"

"…Sure, Romy." I'd had all of ten seconds to realize that my cat was not only alive, but apparently a Vala. Lord help me.

Tulkas scooped Romy off the ground and looked him over. "Have you forgotten what you are, man? This form no longer suits you now that you've awakened."

"_Mrowr_, milk first?" he pouted.

"You can drink from a glass, unless you've forgotten how. Have you forgotten how to shed forms as well?" Tulkas scolded. My stuffed bunny lecturing my cat. How odd.

"_Mrowrrrr,_ fine. This was a very comfortable form, you know."

And before my disbelieving eyes, my kitty began to stretch and change. Fur changed to skin, and I heard bones crack as they were reshaped. The tail disappeared, and he grew taller until a man was standing before me, hair the same color as Romy's fur. He still had quite a lot of body hair, which covered the things I didn't really want to see.

"Let's find you some clothes. You're bigger than my dad… I guess we'll have to make do." I surprised myself- I was rather collected. I would probably have my panic attack later.

Maybe I was becoming accustomed to having animals turn into Valas. At this rate, our donkey would turn out to be Este or something.

I immediately took the thought back, just in case it would become true by thinking it.

I brought my former cat some clothes and a glass of milk. I hid my smile as he tried to lap it up. When he tried tilting the glass and drinking the milk, he spilled most of it on his new hand-me-downs. He meowed happily and began to purr.

Now, I pride myself on my ability to meow. It sounds very authentic, if I may say so. But I could take a tip or two from Romy (or Oromë, rather).

Tulkas rubbed his temples. "Eru be merciful. He'll have to stop peeing in the basement and learn to take a shower and learn how to be a god again."

Oromë payed him no mind, as he was busy licking himself.

Tulkas was right. This would be more difficult than I thought.


End file.
